Best Dell laptop deals: Cheap laptops starting at $400

Dell is one of the best laptop brands on the market, and it has an absolute ton of variety when it comes to laptops, whether you want general day-to-day laptops or even something more specific like gaming laptops. In fact, Dell even offers a few great budget laptops if you don’t need anything fancy, which is why going for a Dell makes a lot of sense regardless of what sort of budget or power needs you have.

Of course, having so many options can be a bit overwhelming for somebody who isn’t familiar with Dell or the laptop market, which is why we scoured the Dell website and other retailers for our favorite picks and listed them below. This list has a lot of crossover with the best Dell XPS deals, student laptop deals and gaming laptop deals, so make sure to check out some of those other great laptop deals as well.

Dell Inspiron 15 — $400, was $550

If you just need a basic laptop for simple tasks like browsing the internet and watching streaming shows, the affordable Dell Inspiron 15 will be enough with its 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Intel Xe Graphics, and 16GB of RAM. Images and videos will be bright and colorful on the laptop’s 15.6-inch screen with Full HD resolution, and you’ll have plenty of space to save your files on its 512GB SSD, which comes with Windows 11 Home pre-installed.

Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 — $700, was $1,000

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 7730U processor and 16GB of RAM. This will give you good day-to-day performance, but the reason that you’d want to buy the device is because it’s a 2-in-1 laptop under the convertible category, according to our laptop buying guide. You can quickly switch between laptop mode and tablet mode with the help of the 360-degree hinges that are attached to its 16-inch Full HD+ touchscreen. The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 ships with Windows 11 Home pre-loaded in its 1TB  SSD.

Dell G15 Gaming — $900, was $1,150

If you’re looking for a good budget-friendly gaming laptop, you’ll be happy to know that Dell has a great option for that too in the form of the Dell G15. It comes with an RTX 4060, a solid 1080p GPU that should let you hit 100fps on medium graphical settings with ease. As for the CPU, you get yourself an Intel Core i7-13650HX, which is a higher-end CPU that should easily handle most games you throw at it, including simulation and strategy games. On the other hand, it only comes with a 1TB SSD for storage, which is low for gaming, so you may want to supplement it with one of these external hard drive deals.

Dell Latitude 5540 — $1,129, was $1,229

The Dell Latitude 5540 is one of the best laptops made for business-related work, mostly due to the fact that it comes not only with a card reader but also a fingerprint reader, making it perfect for any sensitive work that requires tough security. Otherwise, the Lattitude 5540 is relatively normal, with a mid-range Intel Core i5-1345U vPro processor and a very reasonable 16GB of RAM, both of which should provide for smooth day-to-day usage. On the other hand, storage is a bit low at just 256GB, so you may want to supplement that with one of these external hard drive deals.

Alienware x14 R2 — $1,400, was $2,000

You need a gaming laptop if you want a device that’s designed to play the best PC games, and you can’t go wrong with the Alienware x14 R2. It’s powered by the 13th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, and 32GB of RAM, and you’ll be able to enjoy its capabilities on the gaming laptop’s 14-inch display with QHD+ resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate. You’ll be able to install multiple AAA titles in the Alienware x14 R2’s 1TB SSD, and you can start doing so right after booting up because Windows 11 Home is pre-loaded.

Dell XPS 15 — $1,649, was $2,149

The Dell XPS 15 is Dell’s answer to the MacBook Air, and while it may not have the same level of performance in some configurations, it does come pretty close. This version comes with an upper-range Intel Core i7-13700H processor that will handle most tasks you throw at it. You also actually get a whopping 32GB of RAM, more than you can get on a MacBook Air, which is great if you do a lot of programming or CAD work. There is even an RTX 4050 thrown in for good measure that should give you some basic gaming functionality, as well as the ability to do graphical work, which makes the XPS 15 a very versatile laptop.

Alienware m18 R2 — $2,800, was $3,100

It’s not every day that you run into a massive 18-inch laptop, and if you’re the type of person who loves a bigger screen, the Alienware m18 R2 is one of the very few options you’ll find on the market. Under the hood, it runs a powerful RTX 4080, which should easily handle the 2560 x 1600 screen resolution, although it may struggle to hit the higher 165H refresh rate, at least without some graphical compromises. Besides that, the Intel Core i9 14900HX is one of the most powerful processors on the market, while the whopping 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage should be more than enough for pretty much anybody.

Dell Alienware x16 R2 — $3,200, was $3,600

If you need a lot of power under the hood of your gaming laptop, then you may want to consider the Dell Alienware x16 especially since it runs a mobile version of the RTX 4090, which is roughly at the same performance level of a desktop RTX 4080. That means that it’s a solid 1440p laptop, even when aiming for 100+ framerate, which is great since it has a 16-inch monitor that runs a 2560 x 1600 resolution and a whopping 240Hz refresh rate. While the GPU may not be able to hit both the max resolution and refresh rate with the highest graphical settings, it will get pretty close.

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